What Surprised You?

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Medschoolready95

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Hello there! I was recently accepted into medical school and was wondering, what was something that surprised you or you wish you had known before starting medical school? It can be something positive or negative!
 
I wish I would have known how awesome my life was prior to starting medical school. I would go back in time and slap the **** out of that naive pre-med who was "bored with all this free time and could not wait to start med school 🙂 🙂 🙂". What an idiot that frog was
 
Medschoolready95 said:
Hello there! I was recently accepted into medical school and was wondering, what was something that surprised you or you wish you had known before starting medical school? It can be something positive or negative!
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Everyone told me that you'll kind of figure out how you study best and "get into the swing of things" after a few blocks. While this has kind of been my experience, I would say med school is basically always being behind but just getting more and more comfortable with being behind haha. First week, I was FREAKING because I was like a lecture behind. Now it's not uncommon for me to be 1-2 days behind on lecture review, and it's more of a "meh, I'll catch up eventually."
 
CharlieBillings said:
I've heard many rotations are about 12 hours 6 days a week.... Idk how there is any free time with that + shelf
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Probably varies by school but that really only applies to your inpatient months. Where I am you have 5 months of inpatient (2 Medicine, 2 surgery, 1 peds). So the other 7 months you’re working a 40-60 hour M-F week, which is pretty manageable.

My 2 months on family/outpt medicine were the chillest of my life. I don’t think I’ve worked less hard since freshman year of college. I hung out with friends, picked up hobbies I forgot I had, and probably sustained permanent liver damage.

Also med School in general is just sort of an endless arms race. The work load steadily increases, but so does your efficiency. You don’t just wake up one day too busy to think straight. Every month is a little harder than the last, and every month you’re picking up new tricks and skills that make the work old more manageable.
 
Try to keep a positive attitude and be grateful for being in medical school. I think that once medical students get around each other and start complaining, medical school can become a really negative environment. I'm not saying ignore everyone, but try your best to always put a positive spin on it. Sure, there will be days that aRe very rough, there will be faculty who are not great at teaching, there will be things assigned that you think do not matter, but in the end it's a huge privilege to be there and the school does care about you coming out as a competent intern with good competitive. Make yourself invested into the school with either research, some club you enjoy, or just showing up to class and interacting with a faculty once in a while.
 
How much i progressively learned to hate medicine starting 2nd yr onwards. Now an intern and theres pretty much nothing my intern yr i enjoy.
 
For me, I was surprised by how quickly my study habits completely transformed. During undergrad, I was never a big studier and really only crammed for exams. Now, in my 3rd month of medical school, I find myself studying every day for a few hours even after a long day off class/clinical stuff/ whatever. There is a TON of material but studying now, at least for me, is much more enjoyable because most of the material is both interesting and at least somewhat relevant to being a doctor.
 
How quickly the time flies. Ive had lots of fun the past year and a half, but the workload has also kept me busy. It feels like I was just starting medical school, and now here I am, a little over six months before boards. College felt like it dragged on forever.
 
WedgeDawg said:
You still have a LOT of free time, even on rotations
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This. If you learn to schedule your time wisely and make your studying efficient, there is a lot of free time.

The first two years were glorious because I'd do all my studying and lecture watching in the AM and use the afternoons and evenings to go to the gym, game, play recreational sports, and go out with friends.
 
How smart all of my classmates are. Like most med students, I was well above average in high school and college, but once I got here just breaking past average is a huge accomplishment for me now. It was depressing at first but I’ve just come to terms with it recently and it’s made my life a lot less stressful
 
1) Anki and Sketchy will get me out of almost any slacking based jam.
2) It's OKAY to priotitize mental sanity over studying once in a while.
3) I don't think I really understood the sheer amount of material we need to learn and how to subsequently change my study habits until a few weeks into med school.
4) Your life will be wayyyyy less stressful if you just focus on learning what you need to know rather than constantly comparing yourself to other people.
5) It has its ups and downs but all in all it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, certainly less stressfull for me than undergrad.
 
1) I was surprised just how little my study habits changed. Everyone told me that things were going to change, and how you studied in undergrad wasn't going to work. I spent the entire summer worrying how about how to study for medical school, only to find out that I have a very strong set of skills developed.
 
PhillyMed777 said:
That 2 pts may bring your avg to honors which may be the 1 addtl honors grade you needed to get AOA
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And everyone knows that if you dont get AOA, your life is over and youre automatically employed by waste management
 
The Krebs Cycle. Knowing it cold guarantees excellent performance (and popularity) throughout all of your medical training. And it's shocking how frequently I need to use it at the bedside, literally once or twice daily. And patients ask me about it all the time.

My friends who went into ER, Surgery, Radiology, etc. all agree too.
 
Eyeronic said:
The Krebs Cycle. Knowing it cold guarantees excellent performance (and popularity) throughout all of your medical training. And it's shocking how frequently I need to use it at the bedside, literally once or twice daily. And patients ask me about it all the time.

My friends who went into ER, Surgery, Radiology, etc. all agree too.
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I agree as well. Know. It. Cold.
 
Wow these are all great! Interesting to see the different perspectives out there. I'm hoping I'll learn how to manage my time effectively and that I'll actually have free time! Thanks for everyone's input!! Will start working on getting the Krebs Cycle ingrained in my head! :laugh:
 
I had seen on the forums that med students act less like young professionals and more like immature dinguses (Dingi? Whatever the plural is). I thought it was being overly dramatic, but it really does feel like I'm back in high school sometimes - I don't think I knew of any cliques that were this ossified in college.
 
kopftonmd said:
I had seen on the forums that med students act less like young professionals and more like immature dinguses (Dingi? Whatever the plural is). I thought it was being overly dramatic, but it really does feel like I'm back in high school sometimes - I don't think I knew of any cliques that were this ossified in college.
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This. I am also quite surprised by how these cliques form based on ethnic boundaries too. We've got a chinese clique, hispanic clique, AA clique, korean clique. Then among the rest of us who aren't in any of these cliques there is the clique based on if you were in a fraternity or sorority in college. Then there's the rest of us. Who have not enough in common with anyone to really break into a clique and don't really care to.

It's weird how quickly it occurred too. I came in with the attitude that I did in college: let things happen organically and don't force it. It worked out, I met friends who I really care about and we still keep in touch frequently. In medical school I'm kinda losing hope of that happening.
 
When I first started I felt like everybody knew something I didn't. I always felt a step behind all of my classmates. I don't even mean academically necessarily because I am definitely not the kind of person that gets worked up over grades so long as I'm passing. It's hard to explain but it's like everybody else had this insight or instinct on how this med school thing was supposed to work and somehow I just missed the boat. What I eventually found out is that either A) everybody is better at pretending than me or B) I'm not that perceptive. It turns out nobody knows what they're doing and I should have just been focused on figuring out my own s*** and what works best for me and I would have been more successful and much happier sooner.

TLDR; nobody knows any more than you do going into this, so figure out what works for YOU and stick with it regardless of what anyone else says.
 
I was surprised by:

The classes are not impossible, otherworldly mental gauntlets. Things are challenging, but I had a preconceived notion that because I barely got into medical school that it meant I would struggle and that all these other people were so much smarter and better qualified. This is absolutely not the case. If you’re in medical school, you have what it takes.

I wish I knew:

There are a lot of people you’ll come across that will complain about literally anything; don’t get sucked into it. Med school is an incredible experience at every turn even at its worst, and you should make an effort to keep your perspective. You’re fortunate to be where you are living your dream and learning/seeing/doing things that most people will never have the chance to do in their whole life.

This is not undergrad; you don’t need to get the top score on every exam or get honors in every class to be successful, even on board exams. Focus on making it through and understanding what you’re learning.

Lastly a piece of general advice:

The First Commandment of Medical School: Don’t spend a single minute of your time worrying about what or how other people are doing. Support each other and get through it together. Other people will struggle in areas you will succeed, and likewise you will struggle while others appear to breeze through. People only let you see what they want you to see, and we never know what another person is really dealing with or how hard they are really working.

I hope this helps, and I hope you remember this excitement to start the journey of medical school as you encounter trying times and use it as a reminder of how far you’ve come and what you have accomplished to be where you are in that moment.
 
Eyeronic said:
The Krebs Cycle. Knowing it cold guarantees excellent performance (and popularity) throughout all of your medical training. And it's shocking how frequently I need to use it at the bedside, literally once or twice daily. And patients ask me about it all the time.

My friends who went into ER, Surgery, Radiology, etc. all agree too.
Click to expand...

seriously? lol
 
sinombre said:
Intern year is hard for everyone. Just have to keep pushing. It gets better second year onward.
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One thing that surprised me is how many people say this and then it ends up never being true.

“Next semester is better.” “Once you get past this block it gets way easier.” “You magically get better at everything as you progress through.”

I’ve stopped believing. It’s about as true as “the hardest part of med school is getting in.” Bull****
 
Ho0v-man said:
One thing that surprised me is how many people say this and then it ends up never being true.

“Next semester is better.” “Once you get past this block it gets way easier.” “You magically get better at everything as you progress through.”

I’ve stopped believing. It’s about as true as “the hardest part of med school is getting in.” Bull****
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Trust me. Intern year is objectively worse than subsequent years... lol

But I understand your point and generally agree.
 
How lonely it was sometimes. I came in with the idea that we all would be working together to become doctors... instead I quickly learned that other than their own cliques, most of my classmates wanted nothing to do with their fellow students. Fortunately I like working alone so it didn’t bother me...but the lack of camaraderie was surprising. Every man for himself, I should have known....


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
OrthoTraumaMD said:
How lonely it was sometimes. I came in with the idea that we all would be working together to become doctors... instead I quickly learned that other than their own cliques, most of my classmates wanted nothing to do with their fellow students. Fortunately I like working alone so it didn’t bother me...but the lack of camaraderie was surprising. Every man for himself, I should have known....


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

LAME. I’d have been your friend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Medschoolready95 said:
Hello there! I was recently accepted into medical school and was wondering, what was something that surprised you or you wish you had known before starting medical school? It can be something positive or negative!
Click to expand...
I was surprised by how normal people were, was expecting a bunch of misfits and got a bunch of pretty regular people. Also was shocked by how similar it was to high school
 
21Rush12 said:
I was surprised by:

The classes are not impossible, otherworldly mental gauntlets. Things are challenging, but I had a preconceived notion that because I barely got into medical school that it meant I would struggle and that all these other people were so much smarter and better qualified. This is absolutely not the case. If you’re in medical school, you have what it takes.
Click to expand...

This. I took the MCAT twice, applied twice, and only got into one school. Felt like maybe I was a fraud but ended up doing really well. This goes for the people who let the competitive things they are interested in psych them out as well. The people who score 250+ and go into all these competitive specialties aren't some special savants. Most of the time they are just the diligent hardworking people who prepared the best.
 
To go back in time... I missed my spare time! It was not bad but I missed hiking and riding my bicycle 🙂
 
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